Weak and sluggish almost 4 week old duckling

[Miss Lydia]

Where is this on your duck?

 

[CLUlelSS]

Where is this on your duck?

This is at his/her rear close to their tail feathers underneath the duck.


There is another issue, the duck’s eyes started “tearing”. Clear droplets formed and when I touched them, it felt oily.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Could it be stains from poop? How is your duckling acting? I am not sure about the oily tears let’s see if we can get @casportpony here.

 

[CLUlelSS]

Could it be stains from poop? How is your duckling acting? I am not sure about the oily tears let’s see if we can get @casportpony here.

Last night I made sure that the duckling wasn't sitting on any poop, and when I went to check on them this morning, the duckling hardly even pooped. Otherwise, he/she almost never moves, they just sit there like a stone. It did eat when I held the food bowl up to its beak so I would switch between water and food. However, it would not bend over and eat by itself. I suppose a good sign was when I separated the ducklings to move them to a different location, the sick duckling kept peeping and trying to climb out of the box I had it in.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Your using b complex right? They will walk? Are they in a large enough brooder that they can get exercise?

 

[CLUlelSS]

Your using b complex right? They will walk? Are they in a large enough brooder that they can get exercise?

I have been mostly using niacin tablets and once in awhile a b-complex tablet in their water. The healthier one would walk, but very poorly, I would try to get the sick one to walk, but when I pulled it up, it would stand for a minute and sit back down. As for the brooder, they get so big, I had to put them into two separate boxes but they hardly move in their brooder. The healthier one would waddle around occasionally and then plop back down closer to the space heater. While the sick one would just sit there motionless. I started to wet the feed and sprinkle the niacin on the surface as well as give them a niacin supplemented water with a deep enough water bin to dip their entire head.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You really need to get the liquid BComplex it is significantly better than anything else that’s been tried. If you want to give your ducklings the best chance of surviving this. And please fix them up with a large brooder so they can be together it’s important they have each other they are social birds. A large kiddy pool makes a great brooder and you can place some kind of fencing around it to keep them from trying to jump out just make sure to put deep bedding or some kind of bedding that they can get traction for their feet. Are they both eating good?

 

[CLUlelSS]

You really need to get the liquid BComplex it is significantly better than anything else that’s been tried. If you want to give your ducklings the best chance of surviving this. And please fix them up with a large brooder so they can be together it’s important they have each other they are social birds. A large kiddy pool makes a great brooder and you can place some kind of fencing around it to keep them from trying to jump out just make sure to put deep bedding or some kind of bedding that they can get traction for their feet. Are they both eating good?

Alright, then I will try to get the liquid B complex. I separated the ducklings because I didn’t want the healthy duckling to eat all the food before the other one gets in the mood to eat by itself. Plus, the healthy duckling would keep jabbing the sick one’s eye. They’re both in fairly large clear storage boxes so they can still see each other. Otherwise, the healthy one is eating perfectly fine while the sick one is definitely eating better than before. I gave them a warm bath in our bathroom so they could let off some weight from their feet. They both preen themselves pretty well and the sick one preens faster than the video I posted previously which is nice to see. I’m not sure about poop, but based on what I see from the box the sick one’s poop isn’t the same greeny color anymore. However it is quite wet with a liquid consistency, and it stinks quite a lot (diarrhea perhaps?). I was going to get a kiddie pool from walmart that was deep enough for them to swim in so I could definitely use it as a large brooder as well like how you suggested. A quick question about kiddie pools though, would the inflatable pools get punctured easily? I’ve seen some people use inflatable pools, but it seems like the duck’s toe nail could easily dent and deflate it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think that would be a possibility they have sharp nails. If the one ducklings was hogging the feed and poking in the eye I’d just keep them separated for now until your sick one is feeling better an able to hold its own with its sibling. Happy to hear your seeing improvement. Yes the B complex I’d the best stuff there is for getting weak legs up an stronger!